Jersey City detectives make new appeal for public's help to capture man accused of fatal shooting in July

County homicide detectives are again seeking the public’s help in capturing a Jersey City murder suspect after talks to arrange his surrender came to nothing.

Amir Randolph

“We believe Amir Randolph has decided to continue his status as a fugitive,” Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said yesterday. The 19-year-old Mallory Avenue man has been charged in the July 11 murder of Craig Sampson, 44, of Newark.

“There were conversations between a defense attorney and our office on a number of occasions, and for whatever reason Mr. Randolph has not availed himself of the opportunity to surrender,” DeFazio said.

Sampson was hit with bullets on the street at Ocean and Orient avenues and stumbled into a grocery store, where he fell to the floor in front of the horrified manager, officials said. After collapsing, Sampson was rushed to the Jersey City Medical Center and pronounced dead just before midnight, officials said.

DeFazio said the motive for the killing appears to be an earlier dispute on the street. After that, “Mr. Sampson was followed by a group of individuals, and we allege Mr. Randolph produced the handgun and shot Mr. Sampson in the back,” DeFazio said.

The prosecutor said the gun used in the homicide has not been recovered and under the circumstances Randolph “could be considered armed and dangerous.” He also noted: “There was information he may have left the jurisdiction, but we don’t know his current whereabouts.”

Agents of the U.S. Marshals New York/New Jersey Fugitive Task Force have joined the search for Randolph.

Anyone with information on Randolph’s whereabouts is asked to call the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office’s Homicide Squad at (201) 795-1345.